


No Cherries in Colombia

by SonyB89



Series: The Cherry Connection - La Cereza [3]
Category: Narcos (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Consensual Sex, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Partners to Lovers, Plot, Porn With Plot, Romantic Friendship, Romantic Gestures, Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:02:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28252848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonyB89/pseuds/SonyB89
Summary: Sophie Wagner, partner to Steve and Javier, has a problem.A problem that can hopefully be fixed with the help of a certain dark haired DEA agent.
Relationships: Javier Peña/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Cherry Connection - La Cereza [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2047850
Comments: 33
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a series, but the first two parts are not neccessary to understand the plot.  
> Enjoy!

**Chapter 1**

Asking Javier Peña for help was not a decision made on a whim.  
Sophie Wagner had known and worked with the DEA agent for two years now and had come to the decision that he was the only one who could help.

She knew of his reputation with the ladies. He seemed to have “ _skills_ ” in certain areas.  
And he was attractive – all of this helped make the decision to ask her friend to help her with her… _predicament_.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous.  
In fact, she hadn’t been this nervous in all her life.

But especially recent events had shown her that she was lacking certain experiences. Experiences that were vital for the fight against Pablo Escobar.

So she had decided to pop the question at todays movie night.

  
Sophie took another deep breath, ringing Javiers doorbell and then clenching the Whiskey bottle to her plump chest.  
She looked down at herself again.  
Because of the nature of the question she was about to pop, she felt extra chubby today. But she liked how she looked tonight.  
A nice pair of jeans, a green t-shirt and a black vest. Curly hair in a ponytail. Glasses resting on her rosy cheeks.

 _‘I can do this…’,_ she thought.

Javier opened the door, only clad in jeans.  
His hair was still wet, probably from just jumping out of the shower. He was bare chested, water droplets running down his body. And that did definitely _not_ help.

_‘I’m so fucked…’_

“Hey, Sophie. You’re early.”

“Am I? No traffic, I guess”, she said, squeezing past Javier to escape the delicious sight in front of her that had made her heart beat faster.

“Steve and Connie called”, Javier said, closing the door behind them. “Apparently it’s been a while since they had a romantic date, so they’ll skip movie night tonight. It’s just the two of us.”

_‘Yes, because I asked Steve to give us some privacy.’_

“Sounds fine.”

“I’ll go and put on a shirt, you make yourself comfortable.”

Sophie watched Javier walk toward his bedroom and as soon as he was out of sight, she took a shaky breath.  
This was going to be _hard_. But she had to do it. She just had to ask.

_‘Whisky… Whisky will help. Javi always copes with Whisky.’_

Instead of making her way to the couch, Sophie made herself go into the small kitchen corner, while trying to open the bottle. She snatched two glasses from a cupboard, placed them on the kitchen counter and tried to open the bottle.  
But the bottlecap refused. Or was it that her arms were suddenly made out of jelly?

‘ _Get a grip, Wagner_.’

“Need some help with that?”

Javier came back, wearing a tight fitting purple T-Shirt and a smirk on his face. It was like he _knew_ what she was going to ask.

Sighing, defeated, she handed him the bottle.

“The liquor refuses to cooperate”, she said.

“I’m surprised you brought any in the first place”, Javier said, unscrewing the bottle with ease.  
“You’re not the drinking type. I think in the two years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you- _woah, slow down there!”_

Javier had poured and on instinct, Sophie had grabbed the glass and emptied it in a heartbeat. The burn of the liquor calmed her down, but just for a second, until it made her cough and rasp for air.

“Oh dear…”

When she looked up, she was met with a curious look from Javier. The smile was gone, making way for an enquiring glance.

“You okay there? You seem nervous.”

Sophie gestured for him to pour her another Whisky and he obliged, but this time she only took a sip.

 _‘Now or never’_ , she thought, taking a deep breath, clutching her glass to her chest as if it was a lifeline.

“I am nervous”, she admitted, biting her lip. “I asked Connie and Steve to stay away today. I… Javi I need your help.”

Curiosity made way for concern as Javier searched for her eyes. She knew that this side of her was new to him.

At work she was tough, smart, funny. They were joking all the time.  
But now she had to open up her most vulnerable part to him in order to reach her goal.  
She would have to face her insecurities and flaws and share them with her friend.

“Can… can we sit for this? I think I need to sit for this.”

Never before had she felt so hypersensitive in Javiers presence. She could feel his fingers on the small of her back, leading her to the couch to sit, his fingertips burning through the fabric of her shirt.  
He had brought his glass and the bottle in the other hand and sat down next to her, his face never leaving hers.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked. “Are you in any danger?”  
The tone of his voice had changed as well.  
The cocky, flirtatious note was gone and had made way for a concerned and empathic tune. And she loved him for it.

“In danger of being laughed at maybe, but otherwise I’m fine”, she sighed.  
“I’m just really, _really_ nervous.”

It was strange to watch Javiers mind at work.  
There was a crease in his eyebrows, a twitch to his lips that made his moustache move and he couldn’t decide whether to be curious or concerned.

Before he could decide, Sophie placed her glass on top of the small coffee table, took another deep breath and reached for Javiers right hand with both of her own hands.  
She squeezed, closing her eyes.

“I don’t like seeing you like this”, he told her.

Suddenly, Sophie could feel Javiers other hand wiping her cheeks. When had she started crying?

“Hey… Hey, Sophie, look at me. Why the tears? Did I do something?”

That made her chuckle. No, he hadn’t done anything. Not yet.  
How had she made such an amazing friend like Javier? And did she even deserve him?

Sophie sighed, leaning forward and resting her forehead on his shoulder.

“I’m fine Javi. Really. I … Will you let me talk? And not interrupt? This is really important to me.”

“Of course, _Cereza_. Whatever you need.”

_Cherry… Funny he should say that._

Sophie leaned back, still clutching Javiers hand, but she finally had the courage to talk.

“I… I came today to ask you something. And I want you to know that… that I think asking you this is really, _really_ selfish of me. But I don’t know who else to ask. You’re the only one… the only _man_ I can ask this of.”

Sophie could see in Javiers eyes that he desperately wanted to say something.  
He wanted her to spit it out, to finally tell her what had her so upset – to tell her how he could help. He was a man of action. But instead, he squeezed her hand.

“It was about four months ago I think? When I told you and Steve that I couldn’t really relate to the ‘sex’ part of our work. Because I’m a virgin?”

Another squeeze, this time harder.  
The two men had been shocked, to say the least. A 32 year old woman with no sexual experience was rare nowadays. And since she wasn’t a virgin for religious reasons, but because there just hadn’t been anyone in her life with to share the experience, it was even more rare.  
But as being sexually experienced was not a job requirement for hunting Escobar, they had dropped the issue.

“Well, something happened, and-“

Javier was up in a second, taking two steps back and then forth again, trying to control a sudden rage that bubbled in his chest.

“Did somebody touch you?”, he sneered, clenching his fists.

“What?”

“Did someone _force_ himself on you?”, he rumbled. “Because whoever it was, I _will_ find him and I’ll end him.”

“ _Oh_ … Oh god.. No, Javi. Nothing like that happened. I’m still…”  
Javier deflated, dropping back onto the couch, pressing the palms of his hands to his eyes.  
  
The tears.. The nervous twitching. The alcohol. Of course he would draw the worst conclusion possible.

“Don’t scare me like that, Sophie.”

“Sorry…”

An uncomfortable silence started to spread in the room – an uncomfortable silence that both of them fought with another sip of Whisky.

“You were saying?”

Instead of clutching at his hand, Sophie gripped the couch cushion she was sitting on very tightly.

“Javi… Escobar is using more and more sex workers for his business. There are so many men and women in the industry and I have absolutely no idea what they are going through.  
Sex is such an important part of this investigation – and here I am, clueless. Well, not clueless, I mean… I know about the birds and the bees and I’ve watched porn and… well I have sex with myself but…”

Sophie could feel Javier growing more uncomfortable with every word she uttered. But he let her talk.

Finally, she turned to him.

“Javi. I don’t want to be afraid of sex anymore. I don’t want to be kept in the dark anymore about this. But I’m not just going to go out and find myself a hookup. Not for my first time.”

Sophie emptied the rest of her Whisky for the final sprint.

“Y-You’re my friend. You’re a man. And you are the only one I trust. And you have experience.”

Finally it dawned on Javier what his friend was going to ask of him.  
His eyes were going wide.  
In front of him sat a beautiful, soft, terrified, brave woman – asking him to show him a world unknown to her.

“W-wait… Don’t tell me you want me to…”

“Javier… Will you… Will you pop my cherry?”


	2. The Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Javier offers a Deal

**2**

Sophie woke up in a bed that was not hers.  
She wore clothes that were not hers.  
But she had a hangover that was 100% her fault.

“Oh god…”, she groaned, pressing her aching head into the pillow. A pillow that smelled suspiciously of Javier Peña.

“ _Oh god…”_

Memories of the night before came to her in nauseating waves, but funny enough, the smell of bacon and eggs seemed to make it better.

The glass of water and the aspirin on Javiers nightstand seemed like a godsend to her. She emptied the glass with a few gulps and took a few deep breaths. Slowly, the headache subsided to a manageable pain and she stood up.

Sure enough, she was wearing boxer shorts and a button down that was way too big for her.

As silently as possible, Sophie opened the door and leaned against the frame. She could see Javi working in the kitchen, whistling along to the radio.

 _How to play this?,_ she thought, and decided to go with humor. She had been plenty awkward yesterday. Time to get a grip.

“That’s the second time I’ve slept in your bed and in your clothes”, she said. “One might think I have an agenda.”

Javier chuckled. Neither of the two liked to remember the first time she had spent the night in Javiers bed two months ago, when she had stayed over after a car bomb had gone off in front of her place.

“You”, Javier said, “are officially banned from drinking, _Cereza_.”

“Oh god, what did I do?”, she groaned and let herself fall onto a stool at the kitchen counter, pressing her face onto the cool surface.

“What do you remember?”, he asked, his voice curious.

_He wants to know if I remember asking him to have sex with me…_

“I remember asking you to take the burden of virginity from me, like the absolute idiot that I am”, she answered. “I remember burning Whiskey. I remember pizza and an absolutely awful movie…”

“Jurrasic Park was your idea…”

“Another bad decision to add to my list… And then… Oh please rip off the band-aid, Javi, what happened?”

Javier pressed a steaming mug of green tea into her hands then, and she clutched at it. She wanted to know how much of an idiot she had really been.

He picked up the plates he had put breakfast on and placed them on the counter before coming over to sit next to her.

“Well. After your… _proposition_ -“

“Oh good lord…”

“… I decided that I needed to think about it and you agreed. Pizza came and we continued with movie night. And you continued drinking. Then you kept on vomiting on and off for forty minutes…”

She groaned.

“…all over your clothes too… I got you to change and I cleaned up. At that point you had already passed out on my bed, so I slept on the couch. Well, at least I tried to. End of story.”

Sophie tried to bury her head under her arms on the counter and tried to hide, but to no avail.

“I’m such a loser…”

“ _Cereza_ , first time I was drunk, I ran through the streets of Laredo, bollocks naked and proclaimed to be king of the rodeo. You are not a loser”, he chuckled.

Utterly defeated, Sophie decided that only bacon could rescue her now.   
She dug into the breakfast with gusto, trying to chew as slowly as possible to avoid the conversation. But after a while, something that Javier had said came back to mind.

“You said you tried to sleep but you couldn’t?”

“I said I would think about your request, and I did. I-“

An insistent hammering on the door distracted them both. Knocking on a Sunday morning was never a good sign.

“Oi, Peña, open up!“

Javier groaned. „It’s open, Murphy.”

Steve came in, his hair still a mess and his clothes obviously thrown on in a hurry.

“Javi, the ambassador just called. We have to go, one of Escobars’ – _oh_ … morning?”

Sophie was acutely aware that her legs were very much bare and that she was dishevelled.   
She could see her partner trying to puzzle the pieces of last night together, and she assumed that he did not like the conclusion he came to. 

“Hi Steve.”

“We’re needed at the embassy. All of us”, he said, his glance never leaving Javi.

He stood up, breakfast abandoned and started collecting his things – keys, gun, aviators – before turning back to Sophie.

“Your clothes are in the bathroom, they should be dry by now. Want a lift?”

Sophie shook her head, trying to get into duty-mode. They could talk about everything later.

“I need a shower. And my car is out back. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Lock up after yourself.”

And that was that. Javier almost fled the scene, Steve hot on his heels.

* * *

The next two weeks were hell for all of them.  
They hardly got any sleep after they had received a tip that led to the capture of a rather nasty sicario.

As she had feared, the atmosphere between her and Javi got awkward, intense and was dealt with with shy glances, awkward stumbles to avoid touching each other and raised eyebrows from Steve, who did not comment on anything. He had not asked out loud if they'd had sex, but the question had been hanging around the office, until she told him the story of her first time being drunk. 

It was still a week later, the three of them burned the midnight oil, when Steve decided to call it a night. He had not seen his daughter and Connie that much and he deserved a break.  
Sophie was glad for the paperwork that distracted her, so she bid him good night. She had not realized that Javier had not left yet.

A cup of tea was placed on her desk, breaking her concentration.

“Got a minute?”, Javier asked, his own steaming mug of coffee in hand while he sat on his chair that he had pulled closer.

“Sure.”

“I have a few questions”, he said, the light of the desk lamp giving his face a strange, serious glow. “And I want you to answer truthfully.”

 _Oh_. She nodded.

“When you came to me and asked me to have sex with you…”

Sophie tried no to whince in embarrassment, but failed.

“… you said that you were nervous because you thought I would laugh at you. Why would you think that?”

A hollow laugh escaped her throat, which she tried to drown with tea.  
Javis eyes were persistent, trying to find an answer in her face.

Finally, she shrugged.   
“I don’t really know? Because I kind of think this is ridiculous? I was – _I am_ – dead serious about it though. Maybe that’s what makes it such a laughing matter.”

It seemed to be enough for Javier, because he continued with the next question.   
Sophie was glad that she had put the mug back on the table, because slowly, Javier took her hands in his, rubbing calming circles onto her palms.

“You said that you don’t want to be afraid of sex anymore. Are you? Afraid, that is?”

No other question would have made her feel more like a blushing, naïve virgin than this one.   
And she realized that she was. She was not uneducated of course, and when chasing Escobar, it was impossible not to get in contact with the subject.  
  


“I think I’m still hung up on the image that it’s going to hurt, you know? When I was fifteen, going on sixteen, all my girlfriends hooked up, gathering experiences one by one, and they all told stories about how the first time ‘hurts like a bitch’. And now, being here in Colombia, sex doesn’t seem to be something that’s very gentle. So I guess in the back of my mind, I know that it’s about attraction, love, fun and desire – but a part of me is still afraid of the pain? I really don’t know.”

Sophie realized that thinking that Javier would ever laugh at her, when she was so sincere, had been ridiculous. His lips didn’t even twitch. He just looked at her with understanding and concern.

“And still you want to try?”

 _If it’s with you, yes,_ she thought, and nodded.

“Right, then I’m going to do it.”

_What?_

“What? Really? Javi-“

“I made a list”, he said, standing up, rummaging through his bag and grabbed his notebook.   
“I am willing to do this, but only of you agree to a few things.”

As she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, she let Javier take the lead, and he opened his notebook.   
She took a peek and saw a list, with lines scratched out and new lines added. He had thought about this. A lot.

“The first rule is simple, but it’s the most important one. _This is about you, and you alone_. Do you understand?”

Sophie shook her head.

Javier smiled.

“Sophie, I know you. You can’t help but thinking about others. And I assume that it will be like that while having sex as well. You can’t turn it off. But I want you to worry about yourself. I’m the one with the ‘ _experience_ ’ as you put it, so I will take the reigns. I don’t want you to think thoughts like ‘is this good for him, does he feel good…’”

He took her hands in his again when he notices a slight tremor in them.

“This is going to be about you and what makes you feel good. I’m going to take those fears away from you. Which brings you to my next rule. _Communication_.”

“Communication?”

He nodded.

“You need to be absolutely honest with me and you need to communicate with me. _Constantly_. We can stop at any time, no questions asked. If you say stop, we stop. If you say no, we stop. If I do anything that makes you uncomfortable, anything at all, I want you to tell me. Okay?”

Sophie could feel tears pooling in her eyes and her heart beating faster.  
Javier had put so much thought into it. And at this particular moment she felt absolutely loved. She nodded.

“That brings us to the last thing: You experience.”

She blushed.

“It is an absolute crime”, he said “that nobody ever made you feel wanted or appreciated. So this is not going to be just a casual fuck. You’re getting the whole package.”

“Huh?”

“You’re a virgin. I’m not going to just… _plunge_ in and be done with you. That’s just cruel. You are not a tool for stress relief. You are a very beautiful, very sweet woman – _you are, stop shaking your head_ – and you deserve to be treated as one.”

By now tears were streaming down her face and she didn’t try to stop them.   
She couldn’t believe how absolutely sweet he was.

“And… and what does the ‘full package’ entail, exactly?”

Javiers smirk was back, as he sat back down and handed her a handkerchief.

“If you are as inexperienced as you say, we’ll have to do this in stages. Get you used to being touched, slowly work up to it. You already give the most amazing hugs, so that’s not going to be an issue, being near someone. But all the rest? Honey, you’re a clean slate.”

Sophies heartrate picked up as he leaned forward, his smirking face coming closer and closer until his moustache tickled her earlobe.  
“And I fully intend to take my time with you, _Cereza_.”

He sat back down and Sophie could see how much he enjoyed that he had gotten her into a flushed and embarrassed state with just one whisper. She gulped.  
But after a few deep breaths, she was able to talk again.

“We have a deal. Under one condition.”

“Which is?”

Now it was Sophies turn to take his hands and look at him with serious eyes.

  
“If you say stop or no – or if you want to stop this at any time, you have to tell me. This will change our dynamic, our friendship. I’m not stupid, I know this is a huge deal. If you feel, at any point, that we are doing something that you don’t want to do, we will stop. No questions asked. Deal?”

She could see Javiers mind at work, thinking this over.

“Deal”, he said, standing up and placing a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

Still smirking, Javier packed his bag and threw it over his shoulder.

“We’re going on a date.”

* * *


	3. Small touches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Javier takes Sophie onto her very first official "date" in accordance to their deal.  
> Things do not go as planned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey all!  
> So finally, we start with the touching! I'm very proud of this chapter.
> 
> For the mood, I recommend THIS: (I love this song so much)
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjnUSRSTXB4

**Small Touches**

Saturday morning found Sophie in front of Steves and Connies apartment, knocking on the door, praying to the gods that her friend would be home.

She had exactly 11 hours before Javier would pick her up, and for the first time in her life she went through the panic of _having nothing to wear for a date_.

Well, it was a pretend-date, more or less, for the deal they had struck. Javi wanted to give her the “experience” as he had called it.  
Dinner, he had said. They had gone out to dozens of dinners since she’d been in Colombia – but never on a date.

Even if it was pretend, Sophie was nervous.

And she admitted to herself that she wanted to look nice, for herself and for him.  
He had been right – she wanted this to be nice for him as well, not just for her. She just couldn’t help it. So she wanted to look pretty.

Connie opened the door, smiling.

“Heyja, Sophie. What brings you here so early?”, she asked and let her friend in.  
Steve was sitting at the dining table, nursing a cup of coffee and looking at her in shock.

“Oh no, please don’t tell me I have to go to work. I’m so hungover…”, he growled, ready to get up anyways.

Sophie shook her head.

“N-No Steve, I’m actually here to ambush your wife.”

“Oh. Interesting?”

“Do you want some coffee?”, Connie asked, intrigued, but Sophie shook her head again.

“Oh no, no caffeine for me. I’m nervous and jittery as it is.”

Steve shared a look with his wife while Sophie couldn’t manage to stand still.

“Connie, I need you help. I… kind of… have a date tonight?”

The other woman squealed in delight while Steve tried not to cough up his coffee.

“Really? That’s great! Who’s the lucky guy?”

_Ah… I should probably have thought about that…_

“Someone from work”, she fibbed, avoiding Steves gaze at all costs.

“And let me guess”, Connie said, setting her own cup down. “You have nothing to wear.”

“Exactly.”

“Oh god, is it the guy from accounting, Jenkins? Sophie, please tell me it’s not Jenkins. He’s around way too often as it is. And he’s so _annoying_ …”

Sophie laughed.

“No, it’s not Jenkins. And he’s in our office so much because he likes how Javier looks in jeans.”

“What do you- _oh_...”

Connie emptied her coffee cup and set it down before turning to her husband.  
  
“Think you’re going to be okay with the baby for a few hours on your own, honey?”

As if she knew that her parents were talking about her, Olivia made herself known in the other room. Steve stood up and stretched, scratching his belly and kissed Connie on the cheek.

“We’ll be just fine. You girls have fun.”

* * *

Sophie felt pretty.  
  
In general she thought she was not ugly, she was okay with her appearance most of the time. But right now, she felt that she looked very nice, _beautiful_ even.

Connie had outdone herself and had found an outfit for her that she would have never picked for herself, and surprisingly, it looked amazing on her.

She had never been one to wear dresses because most of the time they just didn’t fit right. But this one? It was simply perfect.  
  
Connie had set her up with a dress in a light fabric in a colour mix of bordeaux and violet that ended just above her knees, black ballerinas (she had insisted on something with not heels) and a new purse.

She had spent the last two hours getting ready. Curling her hair, so it bobbed up and down in the ponytail she had meticulously crafted, light but nice makeup and just a spritz of new perfume.

And because she felt beautiful, she couldn’t stop smiling. And that was what truly made the outfit shine.  
  
Just as she was fastening a golden charm bracelet on her wrist, the doorbell rang and her heart skipped a beat, the nervousness returning.

What if it was too much? Did she really look nice, or did she look ridiculous?

The excitement for the coming evening won as she opened the door, still in bare feet but otherwise ready.

Sophie had the feeling that both her and Javier wanted to say something upon seeing each other, but whatever they were about to say, their mutual appearances made any words stuck in their throats.

She really wanted to greet him, but she was focused on the flower bouquet he was carrying.  
  
He had gotten her flowers. For her very first date. It was so sweet she almost had to hold back tears.

“H-Hi, Javi”, she finally stuttered.

Javier was glued to the doorstep, wearing his usual outfit of jeans, a dark blue button down and his leather jacket. But instead of a smile, the look on his face was one of shock.

“W-Wow…”, he uttered. “ _Cereza_ , you look gorgeous.”

The smile returned to her face and was met with a blush that coloured her cheeks.

“I… I mean you always look nice, but… Wow..”

He handed her the flowers, a mix of all different kinds of blooming wonders, and she held her face to them, smelling the intoxicating aroma.

“I figured I’d go all out”, Javier said, slowly getting a grip of himself again.  
“Ready to go?”

Sophie stepped aside to let him in.

“Almost. I’ll just put these in some water and put my shoes on.”

Javier followed her into the kitchen as she looked for a vase.

“Are you used to your new place yet?”, he asked, helping her reach the top shelf of the cupboard. As her place had blown up two months ago, INTERPOL had set her up with a new apartment.

It was sparsely furnished, only the necessities, and there was not a lot of personality to it yet.

“Not really”, she admitted, putting the flowers into the vase. “But it’s nice and quiet. And I got a bigger bed now, so I can finally roll around without falling off the edge and get some proper sleep.”

Javier smirked.

“Or do other things in it”, he chuckled, wiggling his eyebrows, which made her blush again.

“I actually hadn’t thought about the > _where_ < aspect of our agreement yet”, she mumbled.

Feeling bold, she took his hand and led him to her new bedroom.  
There was nothing much to see yet. A forest green carpet in front of a full body mirror in the far corner, a bookshelf, a small vanity table and her new bed in the corner.

She let go of his hand, turned and sat on the edge of the mattress, patting the space behind her.

“Think this will be adequate?”, she asked.

“Only way to find out is to test it”, he answered and let himself fall onto the mattress back first. The impact made Sophie squeal, as she was thrown off balance and onto her back next to him, giggling.

Javier did something that could only be described as experimental wiggling, before propping up on his elbow, facing her.  
  
“Feels adequate to me.”

Sophie was not an expert when it came to atmosphere changes, but as her gaze met his, it suddenly felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room.  
They were way closer than she had expected. The naked skin of her legs felt the rough fabric of his jeans, and his other hand had grabbed onto her arm for balance.

Their faces were only inches away from each other and they were inevitably breathing each others air.

“Dinner!”, Javi announced, jumping up and stretching his shoulders, effectively breaking the moment – and Sophie was glad of it. She had been a second away from kissing him.

 _The hell?_ , she thought. _This is not how this is supposed to work._

Javier reached out to help her off the mattress. Her shoes were on the carpet and she held onto his arm for balance, so she didn’t have to bend over in a very un-ladylike way.  
When she had grabbed her purse, he held out his elbow to her, smiling.

“Shall we, mylady?”

Laughing, she hooked herself under and said: “We shall, good sir.”

* * *

Dinner surprisingly felt like any other night out she’d had with Steve, Javier and Connie. Which meant it was comfortable, fun and she felt at ease.  
  
The food in the little quaint restaurant her partner had taken to was exquisite and very authentic. There was music, she got a fancy colourful cocktail that he mocked her for and they were talking about everything and nothing at all.

The only difference? Almost the entire time Javier insisted to holding her hand in his on the table, whenever they didn’t need it for eating.  
It was the little touches that made Sophie squirm in a good way.  
He would run his thumb over her knuckles, softly massaging her fingers absentmindedly or even intertwine them at some point. And it somehow made her feel hot and squishy inside.

“Have you figured out yet what today is about?”, Javier asked as the waiter placed a piece of chocolate cake between them for desert and she reached for the fork.

“What do you mean?”

Slowly piercing the fluffy chocolate dough onto the fork, she held the piece of cutlery out to him, while holding her other hand underneath the cake so the crumbs wouldn’t fall.

Javier took the bite and moaned, but simultaneously he grabbed the wrist that she had held out. She swallowed and a wicked smile grazed his face.

“Tonight”, he said, “is for getting you used to small touches, simple touches. Those are quite effective and wonderful. You’ll see.”

Without breaking eye contact, he suddenly placed a featherlight kiss onto the pulse point on the inside of her wrist.  
  
The shot of electricity that went through her body and made her shiver almost made her gasp.

Obviously feeling what his touch did to her – _how were his lips so soft and warm?_! – he continued tracing the inside of her wrist with small kisses and finally poked her skin with just the tip of his tongue to tease her.

“See?”, he chuckled and retreated, obviously proud that he had made her flush so easy.

“T-That is nice”, she stuttered.

Javi let go of her and together they finished the piece of cake between them, but Sophie was too flushed and embarrassed by her reaction to make eye contact again.

“The best way to get you used to being touched”, Javier said “is to have more physical contact, obviously.”

He stood up from his chair and reached out his hand.

“And that is best achieved by dancing.”

Sophie lost all the colour in her face. She held up her hands and shook her head vehemently.

“ _Oh no no no no no. Javi_ , I can’t. I’m a terrible dancer.”

Javi chuckled.

“I don’t believe that.”

“People get _hurt_ when they dance with me, Javi. I’m serious.”

“Good thing I have a gun then.”

The DEA agent grabbed her hand and pulled her to the small dancefloor where a few couples were swinging around, moving back and forth.

Sophie had absolutely no control of what happened in the minutes that followed and she thanked the gods that she had refused to wear heels.  
She could have seriously hurt him, she was sure of it.

Just as they stepped onto the dance floor the previous song ended, making way for a slow song.

“Now, we won’t even do real dancing, we’ll just move a little bit to the rhythm. It’s easy.”

“Just keep in mind that I warned you, okay?”

“Put your hands on my shoulders. That’s it. And remember, you can say stop at any time. Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be”, she sighed, nervously gripping his shoulders just a bit tighter, feeling the muscles under her hands.

Javier had placed her hands on his shoulders and hadn’t let go yet.  
But instead of letting go, he started swaying and slowly, oh so slowly, let his fingertips travel down her arms towards her shoulders.  
  
His fingertips left a trail of fire on her skin, at least that’s what it felt like for Sophie.  
He took his time, tracing her skin, tickling the inside of her elbows slightly so that her arms would bend, making her scoot a little closer automatically in the process.

Still swaying back and forth, he ran his hands – _how are his hands so big?!_ – down her shoulders. Sophie immediately felt the absence of skin on skin contact as Javiers fingertips reached the fabric of her dress.

He placed his hands on her back, slowly mapping out her shoulderblades underneath the fabric. Slowly, so she could back away whenever she wanted, he pulled her closer still.

Filled with sudden curiosity and the desire to find out how his heartbeat sounded, Sophie placed one of her hands on Javiers chest and lay her head just above his heart. She listened to the steady thumping underneath his skin, not sure if she imagined the surprised skip of a beat.

One of his hands came back to hold the one she had placed on his firm chest, and his thumb started tracing the back of her hand again.  
They continued swaying on the dancefloor, but Sophie was listening more to Javiers heartbeat than the music. A strange, unfamiliar, but welcome feeling of belonging and calm overcame her.

She had to chuckle a little as Javiers other hand traced her sensitive ribs and triggered her ticklish skin, but soon his hand landed on her hip and settled there, before pulling her the last few inches to him, pressing their bodies to each other.

The fingers on her waist refused to stay still.  
Javiers hand traveled further, stroking up and down her back in a soothing, loving fashion, all the way down to the small of her back and up again.

“Now, isn’t this nice?”, Javier asked, placing the hand that held Sophies onto his neck.

She smiled, letting her other hand join her fingers around his neck, soflty playing with his hair.

“Very nice”, she admitted but gulped as he tenderly placed a finger under her chin to make her look up.

“It seems you’re only bad at dancing when there’s nothing to distract you.”

And that was the moment she stepped on his toes by accident. _Hard_.

“Ai!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

“How…? _Why does this hurt so much_?”

“I don’t know! My feet are cursed, I swear!”

Sophies gaze found the clock on the wall of the restaurant then. How had they spent almost three hours here already?

“Shall we maybe call it a night?”

* * *

Sophie could tick off one other thing on the “first date list” when Javier draped his leather jacket around her shoulders before opening the door of his car for her.

She snuggled into it, enjoying the leathery smell and the soft aroma of whiskey and tobacco that seemed to follow her partner wherever he went.

Thankfully, the streets of Bogota were quiet tonight and just for a minute, Sophie thought that Colombia could be peaceful, if only Escobar and his men would stop to exist.

The drive was short and they were both quiet. Sophies fingers tingled.  
Somewhere deep inside her there was the wish to reach out for Javiers strong hands again, but she somehow didn’t dare.

As he parked on the curve of her new apartment building and helped her out of the car, she thought about the evening and smiled.

“I need to tell you something”, she said, smiling as they climbed the stairs and made their way to Sophies door.

“Shoot.”

When they reached her doorstep, she turned around and said: “This was the most wonderful evening I’ve had in a very, very long time. And I think, besides almost breaking your toes, this counts as a perfect first date. Even if it was _pretend_. So thank you, Javi. You made me very happy tonight.”

Javier had obviously not expected this.  
Sophie loved that she had little ways with which she could coax out the shy side of her partner by now. This time was no exception. For just a few seconds, he averted her eyes and rubbed his neck in embarrassment.

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, _Cereza_. But there’s one thing that’s still missing.”

Javier placed both of his hands against her wooden door, effectively trapping Sophies body between them.  
It was hard to ignore the fact that he was so much taller and stronger than she was, now that he was looking down on her and casting a shadow over her face.

“Every good first date ends with a good night kiss”, he mumbled, his voice barely audible. And although he was gentle, it sounded more like he was a hunter, trapping his prey.

It would have been a lie if she said that she hadn’t anticipated this.  
But knowing that it was eventually coming and being ready for it were two totally different things.  
Still, Javier was waiting for her permission – or for her to say no.  
  
But she didn’t want to say no. In fact, she very much wanted to say _yes_.

So she took a deep breath and nodded, closing her eyes.

A hot rush of adrenalin shot through her body as she felt the soft texture of his warm lips touching hers softly.  
He gave her a second to adjust until his lips started moving against her, encouraging her to reciprocate and move with him.

Javier kept his hands on the wooden door as he leaned in further, so Sophie had no other option but to grab for his shirt to balance herself when she finally found the courage to kiss back. Her heart raced a mile a minute as she felt him sighing against her mouth, relaxing, breathing out through his nose and taking the one step further to her that kept their bodies from touching.

Sophie felt a soft scrape of teeth on her bottom lip and was surprised when a small whimper escaped her. Her breath hitched as she felt Javier retreating, but she wasn’t ready for this to end yet.

Faster than she would have thought she could be, she grabbed the back of his neck to pull him in again, begging him for just a few more moments of bliss.  
She could feel the tip of his nose touching hers, the tickling of his moustache on her skin. But they had to separate for air at some point.

Both breathing heavily, they stood in the dark for a few seconds.  
  
Sophie felt light headed. Had kissing always felt like this? She wasn’t a complete stranger to physical affection and of course she had kissed people before in her life.  
But had it ever felt like this? Was it supposed to be so… _intoxicating_?

Javi cleared his throat and took a step back.

“Now you’ve officially had a nice date”, he said, helping her shrugging his leather jacket off her shoulders. She noticed that he was carefully not to touch her skin this time.

“Thank you. Again. I had a really good time.”

“If you enjoyed yourself, then I’m glad.”

Javier slipped back into his jacket and stuck his hands into his pockets, probably refraining from looking through his jacket for a cigarette.

“Good night then”, he said.

“Good night. See you on Monday.”

“See you Monday.”

And it was a good thing that she had a whole Sunday to recuperate.

Because Sophie was unable to sleep that night, thinking about how much she had enjoyed herself – and how this was still not going according to plan.

_At all._


	4. The Streets of Medellín

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Javier, Steve and Sophie are being sent to Medellín, effectively putting the "agreement" on hold for four weeks.

* * *

_„Peña, Murphy, this is Carillo. Do you copy?”_

Steve and Javier were just about to head back to the base when the radio set in their car went off. Javier picked up, mentioning for Steve to drive along.

_“This is Peña. What’s going on on your side of town, Carillo?”_

The radio crackled, but soon they were able to hear the good news.

_“We hit a jackpot on our raid. You might want to come over and check this out. Are you on your way here?”_

_“Good for you_ ”, answered Peña, slightly pissed, because him and his team had come up with absolutely no intel or busts. _“We can come over right away. We’re ten minutes out.”_

“ _Great_ ”, Carillo answered. “ _You might want to hurry up a bit though. Agent Wagner needs assistance.”_

Javier felt his heart drop a little.   
If she was hurt, Carillo would have led with that. But why else bring it up?   
He shared a concerned look with his partner, who stepped on the pedal just a bit harder.

 _“Why, what is it? Is she hurt?”,_ he inquired, gripping the radio piece just a bit tighter.

 _“She’s fine, she’s not hurt”,_ they heard Carillo answer. _“It’s just…._ Ah, Peña, Cómo se dice >desnuda< en inglés _?”_

_„What?! She’s naked? Why is she naked at a crime scene?!”_

“She’s what?!”, Steve asked in disbelief, sure that Carillo was mistaken.

There was nothing but the crackle of radio waves for a while, until Javier shouted: “ _Carillo? What’s going on?”_

They heard a sigh. “ _Just hurry up, please?_ Ella es maravillosa pero loca.“

Steve was sure that he had never driven faster on unfamiliar streets.

* * *

**4 hours earlier…**

Medellín was different from Bogotá in a lot of ways. And in the short span of four weeks, a lot had changed for Sophie, Javier and Steve.

For one thing, Sophies heart broke for Steve when Connie made the understandable but hard decision to go back to Miami with their daughter Olivia. He had thrown himself into the work and she had tried to support him as best as she could.

The new ambassador had arrived and he was forcing a far stricter policy on Escobar after his break out from La Catédral.   
Sophies INTERPOL superior had given her free reign and she had decided without hesitation to accompany her colleagues to the mission camp in Medellín, effectively landing them on Escobars home turf.

Carillo was back and Sophie was happy. The man was extreme, yes; and he had once doubted her capabilities quite strongly, until she had figured out delivery routes one time that nobody had thought of even considering before.  
Now she had his utmost respect and was consulted on many of his decisions.

As for her and Javier, there had been an unspoken agreement – the job came first.   
They were so flooded with work that there was not time to even think about their “ _sexscapade_ ” as Sophie called it in her mind.

But still she couldn’t help but think of their date, and the kiss she had shared with him invaded her dreams ever so often.   
It was frustrating, but exciting.

The men were staying at the compound, cramped together, while the few women who worked there had been given small but private accommodations in the form of a decommissioned hotel that had been renovated in a hurry.

“I still don’t understand why you’re coming along”, Javier said to Sophie as she loaded her gun, frustrated.   
They had intel on two possible storage houses and they were going to check it out. Steve and Javier would check one house while she would accompany Carillo to the other.

“I think you’re forgetting”, she said through gritted teeth, tired of being underestimated, “that I am a trained field agent too. Just because I’m fat doesn’t mean I can’t run or shoot a gun, Peña.”

“You’re not fat”, came the echo of all three of them, which made a soft but shy smile appear on her face.

“You’re… cuddly. And soft. I like that about you”, Javier grumbled, while Steve planted a kiss on her forehead.

“We’re just worried”, he said. “Promise you’ll be careful?”

“No worries”, she said. “I’ll look out for Carillo and bring him back in one piece.”

Carillo laughed. “I will be in your care then, _compañera_.”

Sophie put her gun in her leather holster and caught her reflection in one of the glass windows.   
She was wearing tactical boots, jeans, a tank top and a flannel shirt – and soon a tactical vest would shield her torso from bullets.

“Alright, let’s head out”, Carillo said, his Search Bloc team hot on his heels.

After five minutes on the unfamiliar roads of Medellín the convoy split up.   
Javier and Steve were following the convoy to the east of the city, while she sat next to Carillo in a jeep headed west.

Lost in thought, going over the intel again in her head, she didn’t notice that the leader of the team was talking to her at first.

“Sophie.”

“Yes? Sorry, I was miles away.”

Carillo gazed at her.

“I want you to stay in the car until we have cleared the building.”

Sophie frowned. She didn’t like being benched, especially by a man who knew what she was capable of.

“But-“

“It’s not because I don’t trust you or know what you can do”, he said, interrupting her.   
“It’s because you are the most intelligent person in this convoy. I want you to watch the neighbourhood, and the people who pass the building. Watch for any inconsistencies and their behaviour. No one is better at that than you are.”

She sighed, defeated.   
She knew he was right. And she had to admit that her Spanish was still not as good as she wanted it to be.   
It would be way easier for Carillo to command his team if he didn’t have to worry about communication issues.

“Alright”, she admitted. “But if there are shots fired, I’m coming to help. Understand?”

Carillo smiled, patting her shoulder. “Deal.”

* * *

The raid itself was a full success.   
One sicario bagged, dozens of trafficers in handcuffs and a lab decommissioned.  
Sophie was watching as one man after the other got walked out of the building in handcuffs, cursing in Spanish and trying everything not to get arrested.

One man in particular was looking back over his shoulders again and again, fixing one of the three windows on the first floor with anxious looks and panic in his eyes.

The cocaine bust was less than they had expected though. Only the product that was in production could be recovered.  
When Carillo was almost ready to head out again, Sophie couldn’t shake the feeling that they missed something.

“Carillo, I want to check out the building again before we leave. Something’s bothering me”, she said.   
He nodded, signalling for his team to head out and get the workers into custody.

Only their jeep and their driver remained.

“I’ll come with you.”

They didn’t need the guns anymore, but still they entered carefully. As they ascended the stairs, there was nothing strange to be found at first.  
Sophie went up and down the hallway, sure that she was missing something.

She looked into one empty room, then the other and was almost ready to leave again, when she stopped in her tracks.

She had seen one room with one window. The other room with the other window.

“Carillo”, she said, suddenly agitated, running along the wall between the two rooms, he thoughts running a mile a minute.

“There is two rooms with one window each… But there are three windows that can be seen from the street.”

Carillo was on high altert in a heartbeat, pulling his gun from his pants.

“What are you thinking?”, he whispered, close behind her while she knocked along the wall.

“I’m thinking…”, she said, grinning trimumphantly and got on her tiptoes to reach the metal above her “that his wall-lamp is not just for decoration.”

She pulled on the lever designed as a lamp and all of a sudden, a small gap appeared in the wall.

The hidden door swung open, but nothing could have prepared the two of them for the sight that met their eyes.

Behind the hidden door was a storage room, piles and piles of cocaine, cash and supplies hidden. And on one side of the wall, on a shabby and dirty mattress, a woman and two little girls were chained to an old radiator, naked, shivering, and obviously hurt.

“Oh my god…”

Carillo stormed in, eager to help, but the woman started crying immediately, scared of the man with the gun who approached.

Sophie looked at the shocked little girls, who were dirty, thin and traumatized. They were staring at Carillo and his gun with big eyes, shivering.

“Carillo”, she said, “will you give us some space? And call and ambulance, please? And best get Steve and Javier over here for the evidence.”

Her partner saw that the girls were scared to death and he backed away. Maybe a woman had a better chance of calming them down.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes”, he said, leaving the room.

Sophie got on her knees in front of the girls and the woman. It was hard not to notice that the woman had obviously been raped, but the girls, one about ten and the other only for or five, seemed to be unharmed.

“My name is Sophie”, she said in her basic Spanish and very slowly, her hands in front of her body. “We arrested the men that kept you here. There is an ambulance on the way. We’re going to help you.”

The woman whimpered, but the fear slowly left her eyes, making way for a tiny spark of hope.

Sophie took a look around and cursed inwardly. Picking the locks would be no problem at all, but she was faced with another issue.

“Don’t worry, I’m not letting anyone see you like this”, she said, letting her tactical vest fall to the floor.

her mother had always told her that sharing what you had, even if it was something that seemed unimportant, could make a difference. And so she wiggled out of her clothes, trying to smile.

“Let’s see if these clothes look better on you than they do on me.”

* * *

Steve and Javier entered the street just after the ambulance that was racing down it and the bad feeling they had intensified.  
As the car in front of them stopped, Steve rolled up a curve and killed the engine, having spotted Carillos driver and the jeep.

The DEA Agents bolted from the car and where just about to ask the driver where Sophie and Carillo were, when movement from the house caught their attention.

The first person to exit the building was Carillo, his gun still drawn, followed by a five year old girl who clung to his pant leg for dear life and wore nothing but a black tank top that looked like a dress on her tiny frame.  
Next was an older girl, about ten, who was hugging herself, trying to disappear in the flannel shirt that covered her torso and ended just above her knees.

Last to exit were Sophie and a woman who was wearing her jeans and her tactical vest, to cover her torso.  
Sophie was down to her black panties and her sports bra, in bare feet, as she had lent not only her clothes but also her boots to the woman who looked battered, beaten and on the verge of collapsing.

She was talking to the woman in broken Spanish and asked Carillo to translate for her, as they were talking to the medics who took the three females into their custody.

Carillo finally managed to gain the trust of the woman somehow, explaining to her that the medics would take her and her daughters to the hospital and that the police would guard her day and night until he would come to visit her.

Sophie was not all all fazed by the looks she received from men and women around her as she stood on a dirty street in Medellín in her underwear, a hand on her hip, the other trying to soothe the ten year old and smiling down at her.

“I don’t believe this…”, Steve grumbled.

“Got any spare clothes in your car?”, Javier asked, but Murphy shook his head.

Just as the women were ushered into the ambulance, Sophie spotted her partners from the corner of her eyes. She smiled, waving.

“Javi, Steve! There you are!”

The team that had accompanied Javier and Steve was slowly parking along the street, ready to catalogue the evidence.

They didn’t really need to ask what had happened. So instead of talking, Javier just gave in to the urge to hug the woman close to his chest.

“Seriously, the trouble you’re always getting into, _Cereza_ ”, he sighed, frustrated.

“ ‘m fine, Javi.”

“Being naked on the streets of Medellín is not what I call fine”, he argued.

Steve was talking to Carillo.

“There’s tons of cocaine, supplies and cash in there. It will take hours to get al of this back to the base.”

Carillo stepped up, watching Javier still hugging Sophie to his chest.

“Peña, will you get Wagner back to the compound? Her state of undress is making the guys nervous.”

“Oi!”, she said, laughing. She didn’t seem fazed at all, which Javier found slightly strange.

“I’ll stay back and help, you guys go. I want to see this hidden room you found.”

Sophie suddenly had no more say in any of this, but as she was exhausted from the ordeal of finding the two girls and their mother, who would have starved to death if she hadn’t found them, she didn’t argue.

Steve tossed him the keyes and they were off.

The drive was eerily quiet.   
Sophie had not cared at all being seen in her underwear by the whole of Medellín, but when the only eyes that could watch her were Javiers, she suddenly turned shy.   
  


“What was it that Murphy said about a hidden room?”, he suddenly asked, his eyes fixed on the road.

“I noticed that one of the guys that got arrested kept looking up at the window over and over again”, Sophie started, trying to make herself smaller and to cover herself a bit more.  
“I had a feeling that we were missing something, so I went to check with Carillo.”

Javier turned and approached the compound, showing his badge and being shown through. He was heading towards the womens quarters.

“It took me a while, but I noticed that from the outside three windows could be seen, but there were only two rooms with two windows on the floor.”

“So you figured there was a hidden room. Smart”, Javier said, his eyes still on the road.

“Hmm… And lucky too. The three of them would have been locked in there and left to die…”

That certainly put a damper on the mood as Javier parked in front of the compound. The small parking lot was empty.

“Are you all alone out here?”, Javier asked.

Sophie shrugged.

“Messina is back in Bogotá for a few days, so I got the hotel to myself. All six tiny rooms of them.”

Darkness had started to set in. None of them had realized how late it already was.

“Thanks for dropping me off”, she said and reached for the handle of the door, but suddenly she felt Javiers hand on her naked thigh.

“I’m not sure if I should be mad at you or proud of you”, he grumbled, leaning back against his seat, but simultaneously rubbing his thumb over her smooth skin, making her skin crawl in a good way.

But still, she couldn’t let that comment slide.

“Mad at me? Javier, I was not going to let two little girls and a woman who had obviously been raped walk out onto a street full of police men with nothing to wear”, she argued, but he shook her head.

“That’s not what makes me mad. What makes me mad is that all of Medellín got to see you in your underwear before I got the chance.”

Sophie gulped.

All of a sudden, after four weeks of constant work in Medellín, the _deal_ seemed to be back on.

“O-Oh… Well, the circumstances didn’t give me much choice.”

“I know. And I think I’m going to go with proud. Not a lot of people would have done what you did.”

Javier turned in his seat, unbluckled his belt und leaned over the stick shift, closing in on her.

“And if you feel up to it”, he mumbled, “I’d like to show you just how impressed I am…”

He placed his lips onto her neck then, nibbling on her soft skin, just hard enough that it would leave a bruise.

Sophies breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t help that her body folded in on herself like a cocoon.   
Her knees buckled up, but there was no use in denying that just one kiss to her neck excited her and the premise of something more, a promise of endorphins rushing to her body, excited her.

“I… I think I’d like that…”, she whispered. “But not in the car?”

Javier grinned, playfully scraping his teeth over her earlobe, before getting out of the car and jogging to the other side to help her out.

There was no one around, as the womens compound was five minutes away by foot to the main base, but still he tried to walk in a way that would shield her from views.

Javiers eyes caught Sophies hands as she suddenly stuck her hand beneath her bra and her left breast, pulling out the key to the door.

“What?”, Sophie asked, blushing. “I had to keep the key somewhere…”

She didn’t remember much from the way up the stairs to her room at the back of the remodelled hotel.   
But she recalled vividly that as soon as Javier closed the door behind him and they stood in her room, that he placed his hands on her hips, pressing her bare back to his chest, showering her right shoulder with kisses.

“I know I’ve said this before”, he said, “but you are beautiful. And I think that today a whole lot of people other than me noticed that you’re amazing.”

His hands travelled from her waist to wrap around her hips, stroking her skin, making her shiver. She placed her hands over his, feeling her breathing quicken.

“W-What exactly do you think we can…”

Javier knew what she meant, even though she couldn’t phrase the words.

“I think some more kissing would be nice. And we can find out what makes you feel good. What you like and what you don’t like?”

She leaned her head back, thinking.

She knew, especially after seeing the poor woman today, that she was not ready for sex yet – of any kind.   
But finding out what she would react to and what she liked and disliked, that sounded nice, and exciting.

“Yes, please”, she said and turned around in his arms. She was too shy to look up into his eyes.

“B-But… could you maybe….”

She gulped.

“Talk to me, _Cereza_ ”, he reminded her, placing his chin on her head, giving her time to collect her thoughts.

“I don’t want to be the only one only wearing underwear”, she mumbled, fumbling with one of the buttons of his button down.

She could almost feel him grin.

“That’s only fair”, he said, slowly leading her from the door to the small bed in the corner.   
There wasn’t a lot of room, but compared to the room and the bunk beds he shared with Murphy and the other men over at the main compound, this was luxury.

“Sit down on the bed, sweet pea”, he said, giving her left butt cheek a small pinch, which made her giggle and loosen up a little.

Sophie sat down on the bed atop the sheets, cross-legged, watching as Javier removed his clothes.

His purple button down was the first to fall, revealing his olive-tinted skin, the muscles of his chest and his stomach.

“You know what?”, he smirked, making her look into his face. “Today is a day I decided to wear briefs for a change. Normally I go commando.”

The image alone of Javier not wearing underwear made her blush all shades of red, and something deep inside her, a small flame ignited – the first spark of desire.

As Javier let his jeans fall and stepped out of his trousers, she saw that he was wearing dark blue briefs.   
He set across her on the mattress, mimicking her cross-legged seat.

He reached for her hand and repeated the movements that she had learned to look forward too.   
She loved it when he held her tiny hands in his, smoothing his thumbs over her skin.

“Remember, one word from you and Istop. Whenever something makes you uncomfortable, you tell me. Same goes when you like something a lot. Communicate with me, okay?”

She nodded, nervous, but excited.

“Got it.”

It started off so innocent and sweet, her heart almost melted.   
They were both sitting on the mattress in their underwear, mapping out each others bodies, reacting to every touch, nudge, pinch and stroke.

Sophie scootet a little closer and decided to start with Javiers face.

She liked to run her hands through his hair and in return he seemed to enjoy it.  
As she massaged his scalp, he closed his eyes and moaned in bliss. Sophie could almost feel the stress leaving his body, just by touching his hair.

Smiling, she made her way down, massaging the shells of his ears and his lobes.

“I like your ears”, she announced, making him chuckle.  
Javiers hands were still on his own knees, having decided that he would let her take the lead for a while, but he knew that he couldn’t hold back for long.

Sophie continued mapping out Javiers face, tracing his eyebrows, his eyelids, his cheekbones and finally running her thumb over his lips.  
Taking a deep breath, she leaned forward, now cupping both of his cheeks in her hands, placing her lips on his in a soft and tender kiss.

He reciprocated slowly at first, but she could feel that he was getting more eager.   
His hands started to wander, gliding over the flesh of her soft thights, leaving goosebumps in his wake, until the placed his large palms on her hips again.

She could almost feel his brows furrowing as he felt a spot of hardened skin under his fingers and retreated.  
Sophie knew what was about to come and retreated from the kiss as well.

Just above the waistline of her panties, Javier had placed his thumb and his fingers on top of a prominent and not well healed scar near her hip bone.  
This hand wandered again and he was shocked to find that he found the same scar on her back near her kidney.

His eyes full of worry, he asked: “What happened there?”

Sophie sighed, letting herself fall against the pillow.   
Javier lay down next to her, grabbing her hand in one of his while his other hand was supporting his head, his elbow buried in the mattress.

“I told you I’m a field agent. On one of my INTERPOL assignments about seven years ago, I got hurt.”

She turned onto her side, so he could see the scar better.

“I was out of bullets, my gun was useless, but I had a perp cornered in an old mansion in the middle of Scotland. Not so lucky for me, the guy was armed with a firepoker.”

Sophie could see that he wanted to ask a million questions, but he let her continue.

“I… I tripped on the carpet just as he was about to stab me, and he ran me through with the firepoker. Entered just above my hipbone here, and exited back here.”

“I can’t imagine how much that must have hurt”, he said, honestly, having started to rub her shoulders affectionately, scooting a little closer to her.   
She buried her head in his chest, letting herself be cuddled.

“It was the single most painful experience of my life. And there was a lot of blood. _A lot_. I’m lucky that he missed my kidney, but there was severe damage to my ovary.”

Javiers heartbeat quickened as he was suddenly confronted with an aspect that he had not thought about.   
Sex always had the aspect of children that came with it.   
And he hadn’t talked to Sophie about contraception yet.

“They didn’t have to remove it”, she continued “but the scarring is severe. I had a lot of tests and treatments. And about three years ago, the doctors told me that I would never be able to have children of my own.”

He pulled her fully into his arms then, cradling her head, placing a kiss on her forehead.

She sighed.   
“I knew before the accident that I never wanted kids. So it wasn’t as hard for me as for someone who wished for children. But still, deciding that you don’t want something and having the choice taken from you are two different things.”

Night had fallen by then, and the only light that shone through the window came from a solitary streetlamp outside.   
The sheets underneath them smelled like cheap detergent.   
And Javier did the only thing he knew how to do – he communicated with his body.

Dipping down, he started kissing Sophies scar, once again stroking and massaging her thighs with his calloused hands, hardly able to ignore the intocicating smell that he knew came from her arousal.   
Nibbling, licking and kissing his way up her body, he paid attention to every rib, every single part of skin that he could reach, the soft flesh of her belly, while letting his hands roam her back.

He listened to the soft moans that escaped Sophies lips and doubted that she even knew that these noises came from her.   
He could feel her shiver undearneath his ministrations.

As he reached her bra, he was driven by the desire to caress her breats and do all kinds of things to her – but that would have to wait for another time, when he had permission to remove her bra.

Instead, he settled his chin in between her breast and enjoyed the soft feeling of her flesh against his neck, kissing upwards toward her clavicle.   
He could feel the fabric of her bra and the soft texture of her breats scrape against his chest as he kissed her jaw and made his way back to her lips.

“Stop”, he suddenly heard her and he backed away.

He was met with a shocked expression and quickly did a rerun of his actions. Had he gone too far? Had he done something offensive, something aggressive?

“Is… Javier, is that…”

She gulped, looking down at their bodies.

 _Ah_ , he thought, feeling his obvious excitement pressing against Sophies thigh.

“Well… That’s what happens when a beautiful woman lets me worship her… oh, _oh god_ , Sophie. Please don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

He tried to back away, tried to get his hips out of the way so that his erection, _which obviously scared her_ , away from her hip, but she dug her nails into his shoulders, keeping him in place.

Tears were running down her cheeks, but when he checked and wanted to calm her, she was smiling.

“Sweet pea, talk to me, please. It’s just an erection, there’s nothing to be scared of.”

She laughed then, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

“I-I’m not scared Javi. It’s just…. This is the first time in my life that a man, an attractive man like you, has a reaction like this, because of me. I-“

She was at a loss for words, and the gravity of her sentence suddenly hit him like a freight train.   
An erection was an obvious sign of desire.   
Sure, she was loved by many people. But as a virgin, this must be the first time that she had first hand evidence that someone desired her.

“This… This makes me really happy. I feel… I feel beautiful and… You’re the first man that makes me feel sexy.”

Javiers heart broke for the woman beside him. She was beautiful, and she was sexy – but apart from that, she was one of the most amazing people that he knew.   
The fact that she cried tears of joy now because he sporting something "trivial" like an erection? It was surreal, but somehow it made sense.

He sighed, placing his forehead to hers.

“Maybe we should stop at this point?”, he suggested, and he could feel her nod.   
He knew that if he continued on, he would have a serious blood flow problem and she could be overwhelmed.

“You know… every erection is a salute to a pretty lady”, he joked and that made her laugh even more.

They stayed in each others arms a little while longer, holding each other and cuddling, until he coughed and sat up.

“D-Do you mind if I use your shower? I…I need to take care of this.”

There it was again. The blush.   
Javier was going to have a shower and deal with his erection. Somehow this made her a little proud of herself.

“Sure, go ahead. But Javi?”

“Yes?”, he said, standing up, turning away from her so she could no longer see his tented underwear.

“W-Would you mind staying the night?”

She could feel him watching her, watching the bed and then looking out the window.

He nodded.

“You know what? I’d love to stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> So that's it.  
> Sophie asks Javier to take her virginity.  
> Will he agree? how will this story turn out?


End file.
